Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Anger
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Analytical
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Introduction to the Text: Now we learn in 1:1 that it was the month of Chislev (November/December).
In 2:1, we see that it is now Nisan (March/April).
So Nehemiah prayed for 4-5 months before stepping out and acting.
Prayer takes patience
Big Idea: Let your heart lead to action…but remember to ask for help.
nehemiah 2:1-4
1. Nehemiah asked God for help (Nehemiah 2:1-4).
Explanation: Now all of last week we got to see a fuller picture of Nehemiah asking God for help.
But here we see that Nehemiah understands that he doesn’t just need God before he steps out in faith but even as he steps out in faith and after he steps out in faith.
Nehemiah stepped out in faith by allowing himself to seem sad.
For 4 months Nehemiah hides his sadness.
But on this day, he is deliberately going to allow himself to be sad…in fact he would use his sadness to get a response from the king.
This was risky because this king was known to cut people’s head off for looking at him funny.
But he couldn’t ask the king for help unless the king offered.
So allowing himself to be sad in the kings presence, but a means to an end.
He wanted the king to ask what was wrong.
And it works.
The king responds to Nehemiah’s sadness giving Nehemiah an opportunities to explain his sadness.
And then an opening appears.
Artaxerxes says in verse 4: “What are you requesting?”
Jackpot!
But notice that Nehemiah didn’t immediately answer the king.
There was a pause.
And even that pause was risky.
But there was no way that Nehemiah was going to ask the king for anything unless God was involved.
Illustration:
Application: Now often we need to remember that God uses other people to give us the help we need to accomplish His purpose for us.
We might wonder why God is not answering our prayers.
Is it possible that the answer to our prayer lies in asking someone else for help.
Let’s read what happens next?
nehemiah 2:5-
2. Nehemiah Asked the king for help ().
Permission
Protection
Provision
“What are you requesting?”
So now that Nehemiah has invoked the name of God in his pursuit to rebuild Jerusalem, Nehemiah gets bold.
If you think being sad in the kings presence was risky wait until you see what happens next.
Nehemiah boldly asks the king for help.
And in asking for help, we see that Nehemiah already had a plan.
So he presents this plan in the form of a request.
Nehemiah asks for 3 things:
a. Permission.
Nehemiah first asks for permission to go to Jerusalem and permission to rebuild it.
Now, the king could have killed him or simply said no.
But in this case the king asks a follow up question.
“How long will you be gone and when will you return?” now this is a good sign.
1. asking how long you will be gone implies that permission is about to be extended.
2. Asking when you will return implies that the king wants you back.
In fact he actually likes you.
Now notice that the king didn’t just grant permission.
It PLEASED him to send Nehemiah.
It wasn’t begrudgingly.
b.
Protection.
The second thing that Nehemiah asks for his protection.
This was still a wild world and we are about a few hundred years from the Pax Romana that Caesar brought.
To go on this journey was to welcome trouble.
So Nehemiah asked for the kings help to get him safely to Jersualem.
He asks for letters that would have had the kings seal on them granting him safe passage through the outer territories.
Now if you look a little further in verse 9 that the king did him one better.
“Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.”
The king sent with him bodyguards.
c.
Provision.
The final thing that Nehemiah asked from the king was the provisions to rebuild the city.
He asked for letters to a man named Asaph, who is the keeper of the kings forest that he might give him wood for this rebuilding project.
And then we are told that the King granted him all that he asked for (and apparently more).
But look who gets the credit.
“For the good hand of my God was upon me.”
Sure the king was generous, but Nehemiah knows what just happened.
A pagan king wouldn’t care about the destroyed city of a conquered kingdom.
Why would he?
But Nehemiah knows that God cares.
Illustration:
Application: I think it’s also important to know that Nehemiah went in with a plan.
He didn’t wing it.
He knew what needed to be done and what he needed in order to get int done.
So when the opportunity arose he seized on to it.
Come up with a plan.
Now it’s one thing to get help, it’s another thing to inspire people to help themselves.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.
Nehemiah had 2 tough tasks: 1) Rebuilding a city and 2) convincing the people in Jerusalem to be rebuild their nation and renew their heart.
Believe it or not, the 2nd task is much harder
neh 2:17-
3. Nehemiah inspired the people to help (Nehemiah 2:17-18).
You will be surprised what people will do when they have an inspired leader.
Because I think many of us know how hard it is to get people do anything particularly when it involves change and risk.
It would be no easy task to get the people of Israel to get moving.
So how did he do it?
Reminds them of the past: He reminds them that the city is in ruins.
Now by implication we can assume that the people knew why the city was in ruin.
And the idea of rebuilding the wall was for the purpose that they would no longer suffer derision.
The derision that we’re talking about is that which was promised if the nation was disobedient.
And the idea that they might not suffer derision points to a restoration of the national identity.
Because the only way to do that is to remember God’s law.
But we’ll get to that later on in the book.
Convinces them of God’s presence now.
This is important because after a few decades, it might e hard for the Jewish people to believe that their God had not abandoned them.
But through personal experience, Nehemiah relayed all that God had done so far.
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